Migration and media during the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of news articles published in the newspaper Folha de São Paulo

Abstract This study aimed at analysing social representations of migration/migrants conveyed by the newspaper Folha de São Paulo in 2020, a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed 839 news articles with the software Iramuteq, by means of the Descending Hierarchical Classification. We identified six lexical clusters, which addressed migration both as a political matter, involving debates on economic and security issues, and as a human experience, based on the life experiences of migrants in different contexts. The results showed how, on the one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic deepened pre-existing inequalities and intensified discriminatory practices against migrants. And how, on the other hand, combined with other “key events”, such as the US election and the anti-racism protests, it stimulated debates about prejudice and discrimination towards different minority groups, indicating that the path to overcome this crisis and to mitigate the intergroup conflicts exacerbated by it entails the inclusion of all, including migrants.